Which of these two maneuvers should I take

[Volsung]

Nah, i'm just playing Devil's advocate. I'm leaning heavily towards IHS.

A part of that choice was based the point you made early:

Depends on your flair.

 

[blargney the second]

If you have Adaptive Style and Iron Heart Surge known but not readied, removing a slew debilitating effects is just two rounds away. If you only have the latter, it'll just take 5 minutes and 1 round.

 

[Mistwell]

Iron Heart Surge all the way. It's going to come up fairly often as your levels increase.

 

[Nail]

Sometimes. Once you've been paralyzed by the ghoul or ghast IHS won't help you because you're unable to move.

IHS doesn't require you to move. Whatever gave you that idea?


IHS is the bomb. Accept no substitutes. Our Mnk 2/WB 8/SS 1 uses it all the time.

 

[Volsung]

IHS doesn't require you to move. Whatever gave you that idea?

That would be the first sentence under the heading "Initiating Maneuvers and Stances" on page 38 of the Tome of Battle. It reads: "To initiate a maneuver or a stance you must be able to move."

This one seems to get missed a lot. And if your group ignores it then IHS is a no brainer.

 

[Hyperfist]

Another part of it is Dominate. Sigh. Cause you can't think contrary to it...same with charmed, petrification, feeblemind and what not...you can't initiate the maneuver. I know some of those are will saves and fort saves mix. Just some things that IHS can't really take care of. Sigh.


My party is continually terrified that I will get dominated. Have almost wiped out the party twice.

 

[Nail]

That would be the first sentence under the heading "Initiating Maneuvers and Stances" on page 38 of the Tome of Battle. It reads: "To initiate a maneuver or a stance you must be able to move."

This one seems to get missed a lot. And if your group ignores it then IHS is a no brainer.

Wow.

Considering the phrasing of the IHS manuever - it's really seems to be meant as a "get outta jail free" card - this is just...really poorly cited. Ouch.

Thanks for the tip! (Our Warblade will be quite unhappy with this news, the poor guy.)

 

[Nail]

Another part of it is Dominate. Sigh. Cause you can't think contrary to it...same with charmed, petrification, feeblemind and what not...you can't initiate the maneuver. I know some of those are will saves and fort saves mix. Just some things that IHS can't really take care of. Sigh.

Now hold on.

When dominated, you can move. So initiating the manuever is no problem.

The problem is: "Can you chose to initiate it?"

Sure you can.

Dominate forces you to do things -- but it doesn't force you to not do things. Dominate doesn't put your character on puppet strings. Frex, you can be forced to run away, but does that mean you couldn't pause to put on your running shoes first.

 

[Hammerhead]

Now hold on.

When dominated, you can move. So initiating the manuever is no problem.

The problem is: "Can you chose to initiate it?"

Sure you can.

Dominate forces you to do things -- but it doesn't force you to not do things. Dominate doesn't put your character on puppet strings. Frex, you can be forced to run away, but does that mean you couldn't pause to put on your running shoes first.

Actually, Dominate DOES put you on puppet strings. That's sort of the point.

By the RAW, a warblade with IHS never needs to sleep. He just stays up all night, gets fatigued, then removes the condition.

 

[Volsung]

On the bright side, if you're dominated and your party spellcaster casts protection from evil on you, you can then use IHS to break free. The alternative would be for your spellcaster to use a higher level spell, like dispel magic, which may not even succeed.

I think I'm going to ask our party wizard to start carrying around a few scrolls of it, just in case. I have a fair idea how much damage my warblade could do to the party, and a 13th level warblade must be incredibly brutal. Thanks for the tip, Hyperfist.